A blog by Randy Gildersleeve

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My blog is back with new title, “My Side of the Glass”. I plan to write regularly about audio recording and my life in music, plus anything I think is worthy of your consideration. First off, my name is Randy Gildersleeve, I own a recording studio, GilderSound, play and teach a bunch of fretted instruments, and perform in an array of bands and ensembles. I live in Minnesota, presently cold and snowy:

One of the best parts of my work is the wide range of interesting people and projects I get to be part of. Tomorrow I begin recording the next album of my good friend Jeff Crandall. We’ve worked together on two full albums and an EP of his band Swallows, an album by his previous band Thinland, and a few other side projects. Jeff is a talented and prolific songwriter and a skilled musician and singer. Oftentimes we wind down after a session with a deep discussion. Music, creativity, politics, books, family, almost anything. How we got together is a story itself.

Back in the late 1990’s there was a jam band called Stew. I didn’t know them, but a mutual friend generously gave them some money to record and suggested my studio. The bass player in Stew was a fellow named Aaron Kerr. Aaron is also an award winning cellist and composer. Stew didn’t last long after we finished their record, and Aaron started playing music with Jeff, a recent immigrant from California. Jeff’s songwriter friend Leigh Gregory, out in San Francisco, was recording an album called Mellow Drunk and wanted Jeff and Aaron to add vocals and cello. They came to me, we hit it off and have recorded lots of music over close to 15 years. So, thanks to the short lived band Stew, I started on a path that continues to this day. Welcome back, Jeff. I look forward to our next adventure.

Like this:

It all started the day my computer broke. Tuesday, September 21, 2010. That morning, the computer in the control room at GilderSound, my recording studio in Forest Lake, MN, just wouldn’t boot up. Without the help of my trusty Mac G5 I couldn’t record, edit, mix, or master much of anything. Kind of my version of “the day the music died”. Well, that’s a bit dramatic. Get it repaired and get back to work, right? That’s what I thought too, but the G5 breakdown set in motion a series of events which are now well underway but at the same time, still developing. GilderSound is undergoing what I am calling a “studio makeover” involving some major changes in the gear and in the physical space. A week or so ago it occurred to me that I could start a blog to chronicle the changes. This will help me organize my thoughts, contain a photo diary of what’s happening here, and just maybe be of use to others with studios. I have spent much time at recording studio forums poring over photo diaries of studio construction projects, which I have found inspiring, amusing, and sometimes caused me a bit of head scratching. I invite you to follow along and leave comments and ask questions. We’ll see where this goes…